MPEG2 (Moving Picture Experts Group Phase 2) is an encoding system used for broadcasting and AV equipment, and extensively used as a technology for compressing information, such as images, sound, voice, and data.
A compressing and encoding apparatus of a standard model of MPEG2 makes it possible to achieve improved image quality after decompression, by encoding input images once to extract the complicacy and movement of an image mainly from the amount of generated information, and determining the characteristics of the image so as to conduct encoding control according to the characteristics.
However, the conventional encoding control based on the detection of movements has been presenting the following shortcoming when actual shooting situations are considered. For example, image correlation detection results do not show the difference between the shooting focused on a scene involving a considerable movement and the shooting of a non-attention drawing scene, such as a panning scene, that has a similar complexity to that of the scene involving a considerable movement.
Hence, if the compressing and encoding apparatus adapted to carry out the encoding control based on the movement detection is applied to the video recording/reproducing apparatus combined with a camera that uses a disk media having a limited recording capacity, then it is required to always allocate a maximum bit rate to every scene to be shot in order to maintain high quality of reproduced images. This undesirably shortens the time of recording in a disk medium.
An object of the present invention is to provide a video recording/reproducing apparatus combined with a camera adapted to carry out corrective control of a target information amount according to the nature and properties of an animated image to be photographed, and a recording control method for the same.